Lectionaries in the CPCE

The use of lectionaries for worship services in the protestant churches in Europe has developed through history. Many churches still hold fast to the early medieval, so-called “early church” pericope order, but in various revised or expanded forms. Alongside them stand churches which since the Reformation have done without a unified lectionary.

In the last decades movement has come into the European lectionary landscape. Churches have extensively reworked their old lectionaries or developed entirely new ones. Developments in the Roman Catholic Church and in the protestant churches in North America have had an impact in Europe. Even churches which traditionally had no lectionaries have begun to develop them.

The following contribution offers a survey of the lectionaries in use today in the member churches of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE), and gives a brief introduction to the various orders.